What are we to make of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28? Was it a religious revival meeting? Was it a Tea Party rally? Was it a patriotic demonstration? Or was it simply a massive outdoor Glenn-Beck-Program field trip? The event that drew upwards of 300,000 people to the National Mall and sent shock waves through Washington, DC, and across the country was all the above and more. (More)

The ongoing controversy over whether or not Muslims should build a Mosque near “Ground Zero” in Lower Manhattan fits conveniently into a false narrative perpetuated by biased reporting and misinformation that confrontation, not dialogue and cooperation, is the hallmark of America’s relationship with Muslim Americans and the Islamic world. It also exposes the fallacy that political correctness and pandering to Muslims is the best way to build bridges to them. (More)

I’m a big fan of Vince Flynn‘s Mitch Rapp series of novels. Having read them all, I looked around for an author to read while I wait for Flynn’s latest, and perhaps last, book about the assassin. I just finished reading Daniel Silva‘s “The Rembrandt Affair.” I highly recommend both Flynn and Silva, although they are two very different writers. Interestingly, both Flynn’s “Extreme Measures” and the “Rembrandt Affair” (spoiler alert) involve destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities. I was struck by how plausible both of their schemes are. I know people in the CIA and other friendly foreign intelligence agencies read these books. More than one great idea for an intelligence operation began on the pages of a novel. If for some reason we should learn that Iran’s nuclear program experienced an unexplained catastrophic disaster I would immediately re-read Flynn and Sylva to see which one the event most resembled.

Secretary Robert Gates wants to make sweeping budget cuts in overhead at the Department of Defense (DoD). For starters, he has proposed eliminating Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) in Norfolk, Virginia, a 10 percent cut in contractors, the reduction of at least 50 generals and admirals, and the elimination of 150 Senior Executive Service (SES) civilians. I applaud Gates for his initiative. Not only will it save money for the needed modernization of weapons and equipment necessary to maintain our military capabilities, but it will make DoD more efficient and effective. (More)

The visit Sunday to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, cruising off coast of Vietnam, by high-ranking Vietnamese military and government officials was not a big story in the United States. Teams of U.S. military personnel have been conducting MIA-remains-recovery operations in Vietnam for 20 years. U.S.-Vietnam relations have been steadily improving since 1995 when the two countries normalized diplomatic relations. The first U.S. warship visited Ho Chi Minh City in 2003. It was, however, big news in China, especially in the specialized news reports circulated among China’s ruling elite. (More)

As soon as Wikileaks posted the 91,000 reports they call the “Afghan War Diary” online, some people immediately compared them to the “Pentagon Papers.” Daniel Elsberg’s 1971 leak of a top-secret Defense Department Vietnam War study revealed 20 years of presidential-administration deception about American involvement in Southeast Asia. The Afghan War Diary is a reprehensible and damaging revelation of secret intelligence sources and methods that places the lives of U.S. warriors and Afghani informants at greater risk, but the Afghanistan war’s “Pentagon Papers” it’s not. (more)

During the nearly five and a half years of the Obama presidency, America has been moving in the wrong direction. The U.S. economy continues to struggle through the longest and slowest recovery from recession since World War II. From Benghazi to Ukraine, U.S. foreign policy has collapsed. U.S. world leadership has receded to a low not seen since the 1930s. Ha […]

Critical mass in nuclear science is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Critical mass in international politics is the smallest amount of aggression needed to start a war. Despite what President Obama and other Western leaders say and do, the situation in Ukraine may be fast approaching that point.

If Republicans continue to lose presidential elections it won't be only because they failed to garner a sufficient percentage of the growing Hispanic, Asian and African-American vote; it will be because they continue to lose the political propaganda war.

Like most conservatives, President Obama's proposed reductions of the U.S. armed forces disturb me. Since after World War I, every time we have reduced our military strength after a war, we've regretted it. Nevertheless, it's time to rethink the mission, size and composition of the U.S. military, preparing for the next war, not a repeat of the […]

Speaking in Indonesia last week, Secretary of State John Kerry, said that global warming is “perhaps even the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction." Sec. Kerry may or may not be right about the destruction global warming may ultimately cause; but he's absolutely right about one thin. Global warming is a weapon. It's a politica […]

We might forgive NBC Sports for glossing over the evils of Soviet communism during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, if it weren't for all those young men and women, born since the fall of Soviet Union, that have no memories of the Cold War or the "evil empire." Given the U.S. education system these days, I doubt they learned much about it […]

Straight-line projecting current trends into the future is easy; but odds are that you'll be less than half right. History rarely unfolds in a straight line; and the U.S. national security environment in the year ahead is fraught with twists and turns. Nevertheless, straight-lining things, odds are that by this time next year, threats to U.S. national s […]